From the Sector

• Next-Gen Technologies for Nonwovens/Engineered Materials
• Canopy Respirator from Canopy Wins Innovation Award

145 professionals in product development, material science, and new technologies convened for the 11th conference edition of RISE®—Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics, held virtually, Sept. 28-30. The event was co-organized by INDA, the Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, The Nonwovens Institute, and North Carolina State University.

The program focused on Nonwoven Material Science Developments, Sustainability, Increasing Circularity, Promising Innovations, Process Innovations, Material Innovations, Government/NGO Challenges to Single-Use Plastics, Machine-Assisted-Learning Development of Biopolymers, and Market Intelligence and Economic Insights.

Participants praised the high-quality program content, in-depth round table discussions, networking and Q&A’s where participants ask expert speakers questions pertaining to their focused presentations.

Highlights among the 26 presentations included

• Sustainable Solutions for our Plastic Planet Predicament, by Marc A. Hillmyer, Ph.D., McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair, University of Minnesota;
• Closed-Loop Recycling Pilot of Single-Use Face Masks by Peter Dziezok, Ph.D., Director of Open Innovation, Proctor & Gamble;
• Innovating a Sustainable Future for Nonwovens: A European Perspective, by Matt Tipper, Ph.D., CEO, Nonwovens Innovation & Research Institute (NIRI);
• Phantom Platform: The Polyolefin-cellulose Coformed Substrates Technology, by Fabio Zampollo, CEO and Founder of Teknoweb Materials; 
• Guiding Environmentally Sustainable Innovations – From Reactive to Proactive Life Cycle Management, by Valentina Prado, Ph.D., Senior Sustainability Analyst, EarthShift Global LLC;  
• High-Loft, Ultra-Soft Hygiene Solutions, Paul E. Rollin, Ph.D., Senior Principal Scientist – Global Hygiene, Propylene-Vistamaxx-Adhesion (PVA) Global Technology, ExxonMobil Chemical Company;
• Canadian Plastic Policy Update, by Karyn M. Schmidt, Senior Director, Regulatory & Technical Affairs, American Chemistry Council (ACC).

Other highlights included the announcement of Canopy Respirator as the winner of this year’s RISE® Innovation Award winner. The annual award recognizes innovation in areas within and on the periphery of the nonwovens industry which use advanced science and engineering principles to develop unique or intricate solutions to problems and advance the usage of nonwovens.

RISE® Innovation Award Winner
The RISE® Innovation Award was presented to Canopy for their Canopy Respirator. The productis an innovative respirator that is fully mechanical, non-electrostatic, with a filter designed for superior breathability while offering the wearer facial transparency. The breakthrough respirator features 5.5mm water column resistance at 85 liters (3 cubic feet) per minute, 2-way filtration, and a pleated filter that contains over 500 square centimeters of surface area. The patented Canopy respirator resists fluids, and eliminates fogging of eyeglasses.

• Schlafhorst automatic winder as well as Accotex and Temco will be transferred from Saurer to Rieter
• Investment to complete Rieter’s ring- and compact spinning systems and in two attractive component businesses
• Closing expected during the month of August, implementation to be completed in six to nine months

On August 13, 2021, Rieter Holding Ltd., Winterthur/Switzerland, and Saurer Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai/China listed, signed an agreement by which Rieter will acquire three businesses from Saurer Netherlands Machinery Company B.V., Amsterdam/Netherlands, the parent company of Saurer Spinning Solutions GmbH & Co. KG, Uebach-Palenberg/Germany and Saurer Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, Krefeld/Germany.

With this acquisition, Rieter will complete the offering of ring- and compact spinning systems by acquiring the Schlafhorst automatic winder business. Additionally, Rieter invests in two attractive component businesses: Accotex (elastomer components for spinning machines) and Temco (bearing solutions for filament machines).

In total, the three businesses had a combined turnover of EUR 142 million in 2020, the year of the COVID crisis. In 2019 and 2018, the total combined turnover was at a level of EUR 235 million and EUR 260 million, respectively.

The purchase price for the three businesses is EUR 300 million on a cash and debt free basis. Rieter has financed the purchase price by cash and available credit lines.

Rieter and Saurer expect to close the transaction during the month of August. In the first step of the transaction, Rieter will acquire 57% of the shares of Saurer Netherlands. The shares will be returned to Saurer after the implementation of the transaction in six to nine months.

In connection with the transaction, it is envisaged that Rieter will supply automatic winders to Saurer in the future.

Fibre Extrusion Technology Ltd, UK has completed the installation and commissioning of a new FET Laboratory Spunbond system for the University of Leeds.

This FET spunbond system is now an integral part of the research facilities of the CCTMIH (Clothworkers’ Centre for Textile Materials Innovation for Healthcare), led by Prof. Stephen Russell based in the School of Design, University of Leeds, who commented “The new spunbond system is perfectly suited to our academic research work, and is already proving itself to be extremely versatile and intuitive to use”.
 
This spunbond system complements existing research lab facilities at the university, which covers all areas of fibre and fabric processing, physical testing and characterisation. It forms part of a wider investment in facilities to support fundamental, academic research on ‘future manufacturing’ for medical devices, where the focus is on studying small-scale processing of unconventional polymers and additive mixes to form spunbond fabrics with multifunctional properties.
 
Key to this research is developing the underlying process-structure-performance relationships, based on the measured data, to provide detailed understanding of how final fabric performance can be controlled during processing.

As a rule, many exciting materials developed in academic research struggle to progress beyond the bench, because of compatibility issues with key manufacturing processes such as spunbond. By leveraging mono, core-sheath and island-in-the-sea bicomponent technology, the Leeds University team is working with polymer and biomaterial research scientists, engineers and clinicians to explore the incorporation of unusual materials in spunbond fabrics, potentially widening applications.
 
FET has built on its melt spinning expertise to develop a true laboratory scale spunbond system and is currently working on a number of other such projects globally with research institutions and manufacturers.